BÌNH PHƯỚC — Chairman of the Bình Phước Province People’s Committee Nguyễn Văn Trăm on Sunday asked for an inspection on the work of supporting cashew nut farmers who suffered losses in the period 2016-17.

Under chairman Trăm’s request, inspectors will check farms in all 16 communes in Bù Đăng District, and then propose proper punishments for violators to the chairman.

Earlier, farmers in Bình Phước suffered losses due to insects. The provincial People’s Committee decided to support the farmers with an amount of VNĐ2 million (US$80) per hectare.

Total funding for the work reached more than VNĐ44.7 billion ($1.97 million) and was delivered to 10 districts and towns. The supporting programme started on January 30 this year. All funds were used to buy pesticide for the farmers.

Bù Đăng District received the highest support, at more than VNĐ17.7 billion ($786,600) because it had the highest number of farmers suffering losses.

However, dozens of households in Thống Nhất Commune sent letters to the provincial Party Committee Secretary Nguyễn Văn Lợi and other leaders saying that after they used the pesticide on their cashew nut plants, the gardens’ capacity decreased sharply and thus they suffered serious losses.

They said that after spraying the pesticide over five to seven days, all of the cashew nuts dried out and small fruits turned black. Each hectare of cashew nuts brought production of about 200kg, whereas the households not using the pesticide earned about one tonne per hectare.

One more problem was that the gardens which used the pesticide are unable to grow new buds with dried branches, and will suffer more on the next crop. — VNS